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Alumni Profile

Associate Executive Director, Strategic Planning & Project Implementation, NYC Health & Hospitals; former Director of Children and Youth Services, Office of the Deputy Mayor for HHS, City of New York

MPA, Class of 2002

Udai is currently Associate Executive Director of Strategic Planning & Project Implementation, NYC Health & Hospitals. Previously, he was appointed by Mayor Bill de Blasio as the Director of Children and Youth Services. In that role, he reported to Lilliam Barrios-Paoli, the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services, and worked to help accomplish the Mayor’s agenda to address inequality. Before joining the administration, Udai served as Executive Director of South Asian Youth Action (SAYA!), a youth development organization dedicated to helping low income South Asian youth in New York City. Under his leadership for four years, SAYA! doubled its budget to nearly $2.5 million, grew to 75 staff and almost tripled the number of its program sites to 14.

Prior to his tenure at SAYA!, Udai was the Assistant Deputy Commissioner for Parent and Community Engagement at the New York City Human Resources Administration. He managed 130 staff to strengthen child support programs that help low-income fathers be more involved in the lives of their children. He also served as Special Assistant to the HRA Commissioner.

Udai previously served as the Assistant Director of the Policy Research Institute for the Region at Princeton University, where he also taught an undergraduate course on immigrant youth, Policy Director for Newark Mayor-Elect Cory Booker's transition team and the Manager of Policy and Operations at the 9/11 United Service Group.

His additional New York City government experience includes managing the City Council's New American Youth Initiative for Council Member Ken Fisher, working for the Deputy Chancellor of Management and Policy at the Board of Education and serving as a Senior Policy Advisor for the Workforce Development Division of the Department of Small Business Services.

He holds a M.P.A. from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and a B.A. magna cum laude in Asian Studies and Chemistry from Cornell University.